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Balbachevsky, Elizabeth
- Associate Professor
- University of Sao Paulo
- Department of Political Science
- Brazil
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| Elizabeth Balbachevsky is Associated
Professor at the Department of Political Science
at Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, and
Senior Researcher at the University's Research Unit
on Higher Education. She also has served as a visiting
Scholar at the Centre for Higher Education Studies
(CHES) at the Institute of Education, University
of London. She has been working on Higher Education
since the early 1990s. In 1992 she directed, with
Professor Simon Schwartzman, the first national
survey on the Brazilian academic profession, funded
by a grant from the Carnegie Foundation. In 1996
she has joined the Brazilian Ministry of Science
and Technology as an in-house consultant in the
negotiations with the World Bank on the Brazilian
Science and Technology policy reform. She has worked
with the Brazilian Federal Agency for support of
Graduate Education (CAPES) as a consultant, evaluating
CAPES' programs and conducting surveys on the patterns
of graduated workplace in Brazil. She also took
part in cross-national studies about Higher Education
reforms in emerging countries. In 2003, she directed
the second national survey on the Brazilian academic
profession supported by the Ford Foundation.
Selected Publications
- Balbachevsky, E. 2004. "Graduate Education:
emerging challenges to a successful policy"
in Brock, C. And Schwartzman, S. (eds.) The
Challenges of Education in Brazil, Oxford:
symposium Books. Pp. 209-228
- Balbachevsky, E. & M. C. Quinteiro. 2003.
"The changing academic workplace in Brazil".
In: Altbach, P. The decline of the guru:
the academic profession in developing and middle-income
countries. New York: The Palgrave Macmillan.
Pp. 75-106.
- Coutinho, M.; E. Balbachevsky, D. Holzhacker,
D. d. C. Patrão, R. N. Z. Vêncio,
R. L. M. Silva, M. Lucatelli, L. F. Reis e M.
A. Marin. 2003. "Intellectual Property
Rights and Public Research in Biotechnology:
The Scientists Opinion". Scientometrics.
58-3 Pp. 641-656.
- Balbachevsky, E. &, H. N. Cruz. 2002 "Recursos
humanos para pesquisa e desenvolvimento"
[Human resourses for research and development]
in FAPESP - Indicadores de ciência,
tecnologia e inovação em São
Paulo.[FAPESP: State of São Paulo
indicators on Science, Technology and Innovation]
Pp.4.3-4.19.
- Balbachevsky, E. (2000) "From encirclement
to globalization: evolving patterns of higher
education in Brazil" in McMullen M. S.,
Mauch, J. & Donnorummo, B. (eds.) Emerging
markets and higher education. New York:
Routledge Falmer. Pp. 149-170
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| The Future of Academic Profession:
Challenges for the Emerging Countries
The changes in higher education have been mostly
documented in developed countries. Nevertheless,
higher education has been under extreme pressures
also in emerging countries. The new globalized
international economy and its demands have affected
the domestic environment of these countries. With
varying degrees of success, all emerging countries
have experienced major economic reforms that pushed
their economies from an autarchic, domestic oriented
perspective to an open, trade oriented one.
The central aim of this project is to understand
how an important part of the globalized world
- the emerging countries - is responding to the
global challenges of the 21st. Century higher
education. The first objective in the project
is to analyze the many experiences of reforms
that are taking place in the emerging countries
in a cross-national perspective. This analysis
should end by proposing a typology that could
highlight differences and convergences between
these many national experiences.
The second main objective is to analyze the impacts
of such processes on the conditions of employment
and work of the academic professionals in these
countries. In order to achieve this objective,
the typology mentioned above should be used for
selecting a number of national experiences for
an in depth analysis. Such analysis is essential
for understanding the new institutional environment
created by the reforms in the developing world.
One should take into account the fact that, in
many features, academic life in developing countries
differs significantly from the models that take
the reality of the developed countries as reference.
In most developing countries, academic profession
is not only peripheral and dependent. It has also
evolved in a poorer institutional framework and
is usually more insulated from other sectors.
Thus it has fragile credentials in establishing
its prerogatives and status in the society at
large.
For these professionals, the winds of change
are not altogether bad. Globalization, the opening
of its societies and the new global connectivity
brought by the information revolution create new
opportunities for the more entrepreneurial academics.
In many national experiences, the new environment
and the reforms contents may be opening an actual
"window of opportunity" for the professoriate
to forge a new alliance with its society. On the
other hand, the pressures for academic performance
can be perceived as threats for old and well entrenched
roles associated with the more traditional sectors
in the professoriate, and thus a trend to be resisted
to.
This project is a direct response to the question
about the relationship between "the future
of the academic profession and the higher education
as a national response to the global challenge
of the 21st. Century". In fact, Higher education
changes and reforms in the leading economies are
not automatically reflected in the emerging societies.
The central objectives of this project are therefore
essential for understanding how an important part
of the globalized world is responding to the global
challenges of the 21st. Century higher education.
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